Out of the sea
by replayagain
Summary: Hermione knew she had made a mistake when she broke up with Ron. Out on a cruise ship holiday, she hopes she can somehow make things work out for her, or has the sea already planned something else for her?
1. On the cruise ship

Hermione closed her eyes as and took in a breath of sea air as the wind blew gently over her cheeks. The wind out at sea felt different to the wind on land. It was softer yet hard at the same time with a slight roughness to it. She liked it. She was standing at the very front of the ship with her hands held up which reminded her very much of Jack and Rose, from the Titanic muggle movie, the only problem was, Jack wasn't there.

"Hey 'Mione!" a voice called out and she suddenly felt two arms wrap themselves around her waist.

"Ron!" she cried out before bursting into a giggling fit as he tickled her. "Stop it! Oh Merlin! RON! OH ST- STOP IT RONALD!"

He twirled her around after grabbing her right hand and smiled at her with the trademark Weasley grin. Hermione looked at him half dreamily and half awake, her heart thumped itself crazy in her chest, trying to find a way out. The colour of the setting sun in the distance went nice with Ron's pale skin. It wasn't too bright and it wasn't too dark. She felt an urge to kiss him smack on the lips as he never looked so perfect before.

"Ron! Ronnykins!" A familiar voice called out in the distance. It was girly and way too saccharine. "There you are! Harry and I've been looking all over for you!"

Hermione and Ron suddenly realised that they had wrapped each other's arms around each other's waist and immediately let go of each other. What on earth had the two of them been thinking? It had felt good but Ron had a girlfriend for heaven's sake! Hermione needed to get a hold of herself!

"La-Lavender!" Ron stammered as his girlfriend and Harry approached them. Hermione noticed that he suddenly looked like a lovesick puppy, it was a different look from what he gave her.

Hermione watched, her heart tearing itself slowly, as Lavender and Ron kissed. It slowly morphed into a snog before a full out make out. She felt like throwing up on the spot, the sight both hurt and sickened her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she knew that it was Harry. He smiled at her unsurely and muttered something about ignoring them. For some reason, Hermione had a feeling that he knew that she still had feeling for Ron ever since their break up after the war four years ago. He somehow always knew everything she felt.

"'Mione and I are gonna go for a drink. You two can makeout all you want," Harry muttered, already dragging Hermione with him away from the lovedrunk couple. "Cya."

"Har-Harry! What- Where are we going?" Hermione spluttered as she was continuously dragged across the ships deck. "Merlin, Harry! Stop! Please!"

Harry let go of her arm and Hermione almost fell over from the force she had applied to pulling back. She let out a huff of breath and looked into Harry's eyes for help. He looked back at her helplessly yet trying to think of some way to help her. Before she knew it, all the emotions that had been kept locked inside her chest revealed itself and came out of her by escaping through her tears. She began to cry.

"Oh Harry!" she managed to say as more tears came out. She pulled him over and hugged him tightly, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I don't know what to do! I love him, Harry! So much... Remind me why we broke up again? Lav... I was wrong about her, she knew what Ronald was worth and got him back as soon as we broke up... Harry... I've rejected every single man that has ever asked me out since breaking up with him... I just can't get over him Harry... I don't know what to do..."

"Shhhh...." Harry whispered into her ears. "We'll figure this out somehow. We're out on this cruise ship on a holiday for a month. I'm sure we'll work this out for you somehow."

"You don't mean getting rid of Lavender do you?" Hermione asked, looking at him straight in the eye somehow hopefully. They were about the same height so they were eye level.

"Of course not Hermione! Don't be silly!" Harry said, but with an amused look. "As much as I'd like to get rid of her as you do, we have to remember that she's Ron's fiance-"

Hermione glared at Harry and let go of him. Her hands were placed on her waist and she looked like she was going to throw a fit again. "Fiance!" she cried out. "FIANCE?!"

Harry covered her mouth immediately and told her to quiet down. "Hermione! Not so loud!" he mumbled quickly. He lowered his voice. "Fiance-to-be, to be exact. I shouldn't have told you but... He is going to propose to her today... While the sun sets... Which is right-"

"-Now." Hermione finished.

She crumpled to the floor and leaned against the railing. The sea wind blew at her face again and she felt annoyed this time. Her hair was loosening from its hold and loose bits of tendrils were covering her face now. She couldn't believe it. Ronald Weasley was going to ask Lavender Brown to marry him. Why had he always got everything right and done properly for Lavender but never for her when they were together?

She remembered back at Hogwarts, during the Tri-Wizard tournament when the Yule Ball had been held. She had waited desperately for Ron to ask her as she realised then that she had a little bit more than friendship on her mind for him. But instead, Viktor Krum, Bulgarian world class international seeker had asked her out and she had accepted, giving up on hope that Ron would ask her. And as usual, he had ended up asking her too late so he had wasted his chance then. Viktor Krum hadn't been so bad of a date she had to admit. He had been her first date though but had been very nice to her. He seemed nervous and gentle with her, sometimes scared as if he would hurt her in anyway by accident. She was brought back to the present when she realised that Harry's hands were waving in front of her face.

"'Mione? Earth to Hermione!" Harry muttered. "Good you're finally back. I'm hungry, let's go for dinner."

"What about Ron and Lavender?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.

"He's prepared a picnic for her..." Harry said, looking like he regretted saying it. Hermione was glad he did because otherwise she would have probably hexed him. "Um, let's be on our way yeah? We don't want to keep our waiters waiting."

**_A/N This will be my first fanfic story where there will be more than one chapter! I hope it goes well and I will accept flames if it is to help me improve my story... Thank you for reading. Revieww_**


	2. Day two on the cruise

Hermione covered her ears as she heard Lavender continue to squeal over the ring that Ron had got for her. For heaven's sake! It was only am engagement ring! Hermione sighed. An engagement ring from Ron... So Lavender did have a good reason for feeling in such a way. She felt like strangling the bitch.

"Oh my God! 'Mione!" Lavender squealed in girlish delight. "Isn't it gorgeous? 'I love thee' is branded on it! Oh Merlin! You should have been there at the picnic! He was so romantic... Hermione... Ron is just amazing! I love him so much!"

"I know," Hermione sighed out breathlessly upon hearing Ron being called 'amazing'.

They heard the door click open and Harry and Ron walked in, looking like they were in a casual conversation. Harry looked at Hermione straight in the eye for a moment, warning her in a way that she should keep her temper down. Hermione rolled her eyes in reply and continued to read the daily prophet that was on her lap.

"Hey, 'Mione? Did Lavender tell you the news? We're getting married soon!" Ron said with a goofy grin. "Congratulate us already!"

"Congrats to you and Lav," Hermione muttered. "Happy?"

Lavender looked at her with a hurtful look and Ron noticed this.

"'Mione!" Ron said. "We've been best friends since forever. Please congratulate your best mate and you friend will ya? Please?"

Harry nodded at her, pleading her to. Hermione sighed, 'bros over 'hoes'' as the saying goes. She was going to get Harry for this.

"I'm so happy for you two," Hermione said, forcing a smile. "I hope you two both last until the end. I always knew you would end up with someone beautiful like Lavender, Ron. Crongratulations, really."

Lavender cried and gave Hermione a light hug. "Oh, thank you so much!" she said, tears of joy, dripping onto Hermione's shirt. She had just gotten it the other day before getting on board. Now it was ruined. "I can't wait until the month's over! We can go back home and tell everyone the news!"

"Good thing this is a muggle cruise ship!" Harry muttered. "Otherwise, it would have already gotten over to them faster than we can Apparate!"

The four of them walked and ended up sitting by the pool. The sea's breeze swept by and they could see sea birds flying just above them. Hermione couldn't help but notice that one of the bird's dropped it's droppings on top of a muggle's head. That was how she was feeling like right now. Shit with a capital 'S'.

"Hey there, sexy!" A handsome shirtless muggle with blond hair called out as he walked passed them. He gave Hermione and Lavender a wink before leaving.

Hermione noticed Lavender give him a quick flirtatious wink and wondered whether she had actually seen it or not. She looked at her suspiciously and suddenly wished that Ginny was here. She would know what to do. Where was Ginny and Luna when she needed them? And maybe even Cho Potter- Cho Chang and Harry had gotten married the year before. She was currently visiting her cousins in China for a month so Harry had been asked to come along on holiday with Ron and Lavender. Not wanting to 'interrupt' them, he had asked Hermione to come along as well which was how the four of them ended up on holiday together.

Hermione turned to look at Harry and raised an eyebrow to ask him if he had seen what she had. He shrugged, not knowing exactly what she was asking. Hermione sighed. If Ron and Lavender were to really get married, a lot of adultery was to come.

"Day two out at sea in the Mediterranean," Ron said with a grin. "What better way to spend it than with my gorgeous baby, Lav-Lav?"

Lavender giggled and kissed Ron. Harry grinned and Hermione rolled her eyes.

Hermione noticed that Ron's hand had somehow found it's way up Lavender's shirt and was doing something inappropriate under there. Harry noticed it to and looked uncomfortable sitting next to Lavender who was moaning.

"There are children here, Ron!" Hermione said, annoyed. "Behave yourself will you!"

"'Mione! This is a holiday! Stop throwing your temper about!" Ron argued back before covering Lavender's mouth with his own.

"It's probably her time of the month," Lavender said through her kisses. "Ignore her temper, it will go in a few days."

"Must mean it's her time of the month every day then." Ron said.

The two burst out giggling.

Harry put a hand to Hermione's shoulder to help her control her anger. He knew how much she wanted to hex them.

Ron suddenly lifted Lavender up onto his shoulders and ran over to the pool and threw her in before joining her. Hermione could see splashing, kissing, and touching. She trembled with anger at how Lavender was purposely annoying her.

"Pfff, relax 'Mione, please?" Harry said. "I'm not a woman so I wouldn't exactly know how to help... Um. We'll be arriving in the Balearic Islands tomorrow, Ibiza. We'll have some fun there. Let's find a way to cheer you up there yeah? Some drinks, dancing- SHOPPING!" He sighed. "You don't know how much Cho loves to shop! It's driving me crazy! But then again it makes her happy so I go for her sake. You're a woman, I guess you'd like to shop too?"

Hermione thought for a moment and suddenly realised that she hadn't been out shopping for a long time. All her time at work with Percy and Seamus on dark artifacts and such didn't give her the time to go shopping or wear decent clothing to work as much depended on plain looks to go undercover. She looked at Harry and smiled. "Harry, I'd love to go shopping, you're the best!"

She gave him a hug and smiled.

"Glad to help, you're my best friend after all," he said, smiling back. "If one is unhappy during a holiday, everyone ends up upset, so imma try my best to make you smile."

Hermione hugged him. "You're the best."

"And so are you."

**_CHAPTER TWOOOO Hope you liked it :)_**


	3. Omen?

The next day, they arrived at Sant Antoni de Portmany. It was late in the afternoon so the sun wasn't so strong. The breeze of the sea hit Hermione in the face and she felt like she had been slapped. She hoped it wasn't omen that something horrible was going to happen to her today. Bird's surrounded the top of their heads as the started to make their way deeper into the town.

"Looks like we've been ditched," Harry muttered as he and Hermione watched Lavender and Ron disappear with the crowd. The only way to spot where the two of them were was by looking for Ron's bright red hair. He was the only one with red hair as far as the two of them could see so it wasn't so hard to spot them. "So... What do you want to shop for?" Harry asked.

"I don't know to be honest... We'll see when we go," Hermione replied, noticing that there were about a billion tourists everywhere. "By the looks of it, we'll probably not get much here."

"At least the sunset won't be missed," Harry mumbled with a small grin. "It's apparently very beautiful if you watch it from Cafe del Mar. It'll be nice to take pictures, I would like to show them to Cho."

Hermione smiled at this. Even when far away from her, Harry always thought about his wife. She was very lucky to have married someone like him.

"Hey, hey, hey!" a muggle suddenly said, looking at the two of them.

"What's that on ya head?" A young muggle man about their age asked, pointing at Harry's scar. "It's pretty wicked! Mind if we take a pic, eh?"

Harry shrugged, feeling annoyed that even with muggles, he somehow had 'celebrity' status.

"You're his girlfriend?" the man continued, giving her his camera. "Take a pic for us!"

Hermione blushed at the misjudgment. "Oh no! We're not dating!" she blurted out somehow embarrassed. "We're just best friends! That's all."

The muggle looked at her curiously then smiled. "What a shame," he said. "Such a beauty being wasted. You dating anyone?"

Harry put a protective arm in front of Hermione. "If you're getting any wicked thoughts in your head, I suggest you back off," Harry said, his hand reaching for his wand in his pocket. "You'll regret it."

The muggle laughed. "Wow, calm down already mate! So protective!"

"Take the picture already!" his friend said. "I love the halloween costume!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and quickly took a picture for them. After she was done, Harry and herself rushed off.

"Those two are rude," Harry muttered.

"Never mind them," Hermione said. "Let's enjoy the day shall we? We're out here to enjoy our holiday!"

Harry smiled. "You're like my bigger sister Hermione" he said. "And you're beautiful which is a plus. I understand why he asked if you were single but I wouldn't want you to date him. I don't like the way he looks."

Hermione laughed. "I know how to look after myself Harry!"

Hermione noticed that Harry saw something that caught his eye as he suddenly had a huge grin on his face.

"What?"

"Do you think that Cho will like that bracelet?" he asked her, pointing at the bracelet with orange and yellow seashells.

Hermione smiled. "Harry, of course she will, it's beautiful!"

Two hours later, Hermione had managed to buy a couple of skirts and shirts, a few bracelets and a coconut drink. Harry on the other hand seemed to have too much to carry, most of the stuff he had bought was for Cho.

She noticed that the sky seemed a little bit darker yet bright at the same time as the sun was setting. A nice red mixed with the sky blue and she smiled at the beauty of it. The Mediterranean was such a beautiful place. "Harry, we better hurry over to that cafe you were talking about."

Harry nodded. "Cafe del Mar? It's gonna be crowded, come on."

Harry hadn't been wrong about the fact that it was going to be crowded. Hermione saw millions of tourists everywhere and she spotted Ron and Lavender in the far end by looking for red hair. They were... making out.

"By the expression on your face, I see that you have spotted Mr. Weasley?" Harry said with a chuckle.

Hermione punched him lightly. "Shut up!" she muttered.

There were shirtless men everywhere, most of them were good looking but none of them had caught Hermione's eye as her feelings for Ron were quite strong. There was no rapid thumping of the heart or the butterfly effect in the stomach. It only happened when she looked or talked to Ron.

The sunset was very romantic. There were couples everywhere doing exactly what Ron and Lavender were. The breeze was gentle today and for some reason, the birds had silenced too. It was as if they were enjoying the setting sun with the humans.

An hour went by and it was now dark, yet Ibiza was still beautiful at night as it was at night when everything came to life.

"Hey 'Mione!" Lavender called out, walking over to them, hand in hand with Ron. "Where were you two? We were looking all over for you! Did you see the sun set? it was so beautiful! Ron told me that I looked even more beautiful than the setting sun though... He's so sweet."

Hermione snorted at the comment that the two had gone looking for them. They had spent nearly more than three hours probably snogging somewhere, annoying everyone. And Ron comparing her with the gorgeous sunset? She needed her ears to be tested.

"Oh yes you are," Ron whispered into Lavender's ears. "So beautiful... This sunset is nothing."

Hermione wanted to barf. This wasn't how Ron behaved. What had Lavender done to him?

"We still got a few hours left before the ship leaves," Harry said. "Want to go dancing?"

"Sure!" Lavender and Ron said.

"'Mione?" Harry asked Hermione.

"I'm all right," She said. "I want to return to the ship first. Need some sleep."

"But this is IBIZA, 'Mione!" Ron said.

"So?" She said, raising an eyebrow for an answer.

"Never mind." he said.

"I'll bring your stuff back for you," Hermione told Harry, secretly minimizing everything with her wand, making sure the muggles didn't see. "You three have fun!"

Harry looked at Hermione sadly. "You sure you're not coming?"

She nodded. "Go already."

Without another word, Ron and Lavender left, it took Harry persuading for him to leave Hermione alone to walk back to the ship. She sighed. Was this holiday intended to make her pissed off? Was this all planned out by Lavender? She tried to ignore their making out as she made her way back to the ship. The memory of the two reminded her of how she used to do that with Ron, daily, everyday...

She wondered if the slapping of the wind earlier was a prediction of how she was feeling now. She felt like she had been slapped in the face. She closed her eyes and let out a breath of air before continuing to walk. She turned around a corner to get back to the ship when she suddenly bumped into a someone, full smack in the face, and fell over. She dropped one shopping bag that had Harry's shopping and hers inside and was about to land on her arse when an arm wrapped itself around her waist and brought her back up.

"Are you alvight miss?" a worried accented voice asked.

The voice sounded familiar. Hermione opened her eyes to see if she was hearing things. Before her very own eyes were dark brown ones that seemed to resemble the brown of midnight tree barks. His well toned arms and body was visible even at night and his skin was slightly more olive than she remembered. She found her body relaxing to the familiar touch of his arm around her waist and she felt his grip tighten, it was as if he had realised just what she had too.

"Viktor?" she blurted out.

"Hermiown-ee!" he blurted out at the same time.


	4. Lost Lady

Hermione could see pure joy and surprise in the eyes of the man before her. She could see the reminiscing look on his face and the awkward smile he had tried to put on for her all those years ago. She noticed a bit of his hair was covering his eyes and felt a desperate need to get it out of the way to see his deep eyes, but she restrained herself. She hadn't met him in ages and wasn't even close to him anymore, obviously he would find that action uncomfortable.

"Surprise to see you Hermi-own!" Viktor said after a long moment of happy silence. "I vasn't expecting... You be here!"

"Same with you!" Hermione said, forgetting about the shopping bag that was on the sandy ground. Hermione completely ignored the embarrassed look on Viktor's face, due to the fact that his English was a bit rusty, he probably hadn't spoken English since last talking to her back in her fourth year. "It's such a surprise to see you here. I mean, out of the billions of places on Earth, I meet you in Ibiza! That is like one out of all of the millions of stars in the world chance! I really didn't expect to see you here! It's been ages since I've last seen you! Merlin..."

The hype suddenly died down and the two just stared at each other, as if catching up with one another through looking into each others eyes, just watching. A small breeze went brushed past Hermione's skin, gently and smoothly as if scared of hurting her. It was a strange yet nice feeling. Hermione saw the lights of the dancing night life of Ibiza flicker in Viktor's eyes.

"Hi," Viktor said.

"Hi," Hermione said.

Viktor smiled softly. "Strange how all of a sudden, ve not so much talk to each other. Maybe this silence good?"

Hermione didn't know what to say to Viktor. She just looked at him with words full in her mouth but unable to speak. They were there but not spilling out of her like she normally would have when meeting a someone she hadn't met in a long time. What in Merlin's name was wrong with her?

"You haffent vritten in long time." He said emotionlessly.

Hermione flushed embarrassed and apologetically. She had written to him up until the point of the war. During the war, she had completely forgot about him because of all of the drama that had surrounded Harry, Ron, and herself. She gave Viktor a weak smile and sighed at the amount of hurt he must have felt when she had stopped writing to him.

"I'm so sorry, Viktor," Hermione said. "It's just that during the war... Everything was so rushed and confusing I didn't have time to do anything for myself. I had to look after Harry and protect him- Not to mention Ron."

Hermione's mind flickered with images of Lavender and Ron as soon as she rolled the 'R' word out of her mouth. She shook it off and held back some tears and looked at Viktor.

"And I assume that affter var forgot too?" He said.

Hermione suddenly felt angry with Viktor. An unknown emotion crawled out of her chest and found itself in her mind. "You didn't write to me either though! Don't put all of the blame on me!" she said, rather hotly. "You men are all the same! Always blaming others! Why does everyone expect me to do everything?!"

Viktor blinked at her. "I... I thinking you maybe forgot me so I don't vrite to you," he said. "I haff Quidditch anyvay so vas busy."

Hermione suddenly felt ashamed with her sudden outburst and wished that she could be millions of miles away from Viktor. He had only just met her and one of the first few things she did to him after not seeing each other for ages was yell at him. She wished that she could take her actions back. "I'm sorry about that," Hermione muttered quickly. "I- I shouldn't have responded in such a way... I mean our meeting.. You were busy as was I. We couldn't write to each other because of that... Um yeah."

He smiled at her again. It looked like he had finally mastered smiling naturally without the awkwardness. "I haff to admit, I missed your random temper, Miss Granger," he said.

Hermione genuinely laughed. "My random temper?" She laughed. "I see you have mastered your smile Mr. Krum? Been practicing?"

He shrugged then bent down to pick something up. "Your shopping. Maybe forget no?"

Hermione reached out to get her shopping but he didn't hand it over to her. She raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I vill hold" he said. "Are you alone here? Vhere is friends?"

After the mention of friends, Hermione suddenly remembered that she had been on her way back to the cruise ship. "They're off clubbing," she said. "You know how night is like here... Wild. Crazy. Instead of exacerbating the situation, why don't you hand me over my shopping or receive a hex from my wand?"

"Is threat Ms. Granger?" Viktor asked, faking his shock with forced wide eyes.

Hermione soon realised that he wasn't going to return her shopping. She rolled her eyes.

"Vhy not vith friends?" Viktor asked. "Alone at night no safe for pretty young lady like you."

Hermione blushed, wondering why on Earth he was calling her pretty, he needed to get his eyes checked. "I wanted to get back to the cruise ship I'm staying on. We're leaving in a couple of hours..."

"You stay on Lost Lady?" Viktor asked her.

Hermione nodded. "In fact I am. Why?"

Viktor smiled. "I am about to check in there today! Ve go there together if vant. Safer for you too."

Hermione laughed. "If you haven't forgotten Viktor, I have a wand. I can protect myself. Even Harry doesn't think I can protect myself... I've protected myself from Death Eaters for Merlin's sake!"

Viktor suddenly held a sad and pensive look. He didn't seem to happy when she mentioned Death Eater. It was then she remembered that his father had been one and had been killed during the war. On the news, it had said that Viktor's mother had committed suicide after that for some unconfirmed reason. The war had left Viktor with no family. He was all alone.

"Oh Merlin," Hermione said, putting a hand to his shoulder. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to..."

The look on his face told her to keep a zip on it. He started to make his way towards a small pathway that Hermione was sure was going to lead to the ship, she followed closely beside him.

The waves went to and fro, splashing gently against the sand of the beach. A gentle yet funereal kind of music was made out of the soft splashing. Viktor kicked at a stone in front of him and Hermione heard it stop when it hit a palm tree nearby.

"You haff boyfriend, Hermi-own?" Viktor suddenly asked.

"What?!" Hermione hadn't expected him to ask her that.

"You haff boyfriend? Hermio-ninny?"

"No." she replied simply. "Do you? Apparently she's some beauty from Italy?"

"No." he said. "She my good friend's girl. You vill see them on ship I am thinking. They there already. You maybe vant meet them?"

"Sure."

Hermione soon saw the huge luxurious ship in front of her, it's lights escaping it through the large circular and rectangular windows. She noticed how it caught Viktor's eyes, making them shine somehow. She saw dark shadows on his arms through the light, showing how muscular he was. She blushed.

"You seeing something?" he asked.

"Nothing." She blushed even more.

After getting their passport cards signed in, the two entered the ship and made their way up onto the deck. Hermione suddenly found herself remembering the event from yesterday. Proposal. She shoved the thought to a side and grabbed the shopping bag from Viktor, surprising him.

"Are okay?" he asked her. "You look sad."

"Huh?" Hermione mumbled, fumbling with her tank top with one hand. "Nothing."

Silence found its way back and the two of them just stood there silently. The only noises made were the waves splashing against the ship and the music and talking coming from the lower and upper levels of the ship. A little a head of them, there were children laughing and playing. Hermione suddenly found herself wishing to be a child again, young and innocent, she wouldn't have to worry so much about her life then.

A moment later, Hermione found herself walking alone side Viktor, down the plank flooring of the deck. Above their heads, darkness covered the sky. Even with the darkness, there was some kind of happy feeling in the air. Hermione decided that it was the feeling of finding and being with a long lost friend. To be honest, she had missed Viktor's presence.

"Hermi-own," Viktor suddenly said, breaking the silence. "You sleepy? Eyes no so good. Maybe go to sleep?"

Hermione blinked. "I'm not sleepy."

"Dark circles say you are vrong," He replied. "Go to bed? I vill like to see you tomorrow again. You say you vant to see my friends? Pretty Italy girl?"

"Right." Hermione said. She couldn't remember the last time she couldn't find the right words to say.

"Good night then Ms. Granger," Viktor said. "I vill valking you to room. Tomorrow vill be a new day."


	5. Orto Botanico di Cagliari

Hermione kept her eyes on her eggs and bacon and ignored the flirting going on in front of her. Lavender was giggling about something Ron did and was now feeding him with her fork. Next to Hermione, Harry was uncomfortably finding the right place to sit on on his chair.

"Hermione!" Lavender squealed before bursting into a fit of giggles. "Tell Ron to stop poking me!"

"Stop poking her." Hermione said without any emotion. The words just came out of her mouth, as if just reading off something.

"Ugh, you're hopeless." Lavender muttered. She kissed Ron on the cheeks then continued eating.

"You missed out on a lot yesterday," Ron said all of a sudden. Those seven words were the first words he said to her this morning. Typical. "There was funky music and pretty hot girls everywhere!"

"Ronald, I prefer men if you haven't forgotten," Hermione muttered. She had a sudden remembrance of fourth year, when Ron had finally realised she was a girl.

"Oh you know what he means!" Lavender said, when noticing the flash of Hermione's eyes.

Hermione rolled her eyes and looked at Harry. "Enjoyed yesterday?"

He shrugged. "All right I guess."

"Seen any hot girls?" Hermione teased.

Harry faked a glare at her. "I'm married." he simple replied, showing off his wedding ring.

Ron stood up. "I'm getting more food." He left.

There was an uneasy feeling as Ron disappeared over to the food section. Hermione, Harry, and Lavender. It just didn't sit right. Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat again, a habit he taken to after the war. Lavender stopped eating and Hermione knew why. She was trying to keep herself thin, only eating when Ron was there so that he wouldn't worry about her weight. Hermione rolled her eyes and stuffed more food down her throat.

"Hermione! Slow down!" Harry said, worriedly. "You're going to choke yourself soon!"

Hermione ignored him and thought about yesterday events. The four of them had shopped about Mallorca and Menorca, visiting the tourists sites and beaches. The day before, they had been at Ibiza, where she had met Viktor. They hadn't seen each other yesterday. He was probably busy...

"I'm done eating," Lavender said. "Tell Ron I'll be up swimming. We won't be at Cagliari until much later right?"

Harry muttered an answer to her, but she had already left. Hermione had a feeling she had gone men-hunting.

"Where'd Lav run off to?" Ron asked in a weird voice. His mouth was stuffed with food.

"Library," Harry told him. He was saving Ron from feeling the pain from catching Lavender flirting with another guy. Hermione wished that Ron would spot her but knew that Harry didn't want his best mate hurt.

Ron dropped his plate onto the table and wiped his hands on his pants. "I'm going." He said.

"What?!" Harry and Hermione said together.

"Aren't you going to finish eating?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head.

Hermione couldn't believe it. Ron was even giving up on his favourite hobby, eating, to be with his fiance. Why hadn't he done that for her? "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Hermione asked him as he reached the entrance to the dining hall.

Ron looked surprised at her language as she rarely swore.

"Finish your breakfast first," she said. "You're wasting food."

"But it's a buffet!" he said.

"So?"

Harry looked at her curiously in the eyes. He probably saw the longing for Ron that Hermione had. He shook his head.

Ron walked back and sat down. "Happy?"

Hermione nodded with a smile.

__________

The golden trio were at the top of the ship, gazing out towards the Mediterranean sea. The wind was blowing softly and the air of the sea surrounded them.

"Feels nice to be together again!" Hermione said, putting a hand onto each of the young men's shoulders. "Just the three of us. I missed those days."

"Yeah..." Harry said. "I remember when we only trusted each other during the war. Good old days."

"Good?" Ron said with a squished smirk. "Wasn't it horrible? All I remember is being chased my the death eaters and the sword and blood and death and-"

"Look at the bright side for once, Ronald!" Hermione said.

There was a rather faint yet high pitched squeal and Hermione knew exactly who's squeal that was. Looking behind her, on the deck, was Lavender being carried by the same blond man from yesterday. He was about to throw her into the pool, just like Ron did from their first day on the ship.

Harry seemed to have noticed it to and immediately brought Ron to the other side of the roof.

Hermione was alone in a way now and she look at Ron from her angle. His red hair seemed redder than usual as the sun was brightly shining down on him. His pale freckles skin looked sun burnt as it was starting to turn red... Like his hair. She suddenly felt her heart start to beat faster as she continued to stare at him. His emerald green eyes suddenly met hers and she found herself uncontrollably blushing.

"What you doing alone over there?" Ron asked. "Come over!"

__________

The Golden trio were walking around Cagliari, and had already visited a couple of cathedrals, market places, and had walked across the thirteen kilometer long Poetto beach. They couldn't find Lavender anywhere so had gone off the ship without her. Harry had managed to find a way to comfort Ron from his explosive temper and the three of them were enjoying themselves.

The three of them entered Orto Botanico di Cagliari and were breath taken by the amount of plant species. There were bright colours everywhere, both mixing and clashing with each other, yet looking beautiful. It reminded Hermione of Luna in a way.

"Damn, we should have brought Luna here," Ron said with a smirk. "Reminds me of her, crazy, beautiful."

The three of them walked in and out of places and took pictures, the muggle way of course. They saw a fountain and walked over to it. Water splashed up and down, sounding like the call of nature.

"I'll be right back," Harry suddenly, said, making his way somewhere.

"Where you going?" Ron asked him.

"Toilet." Harry replied.

"Didn't you just go?" Ron asked.

Harry gave Hermione a wink, sending her a message as to spend this time well with Ron. He disappeared around a corner of plants.

Birds chirped around them, otherwise, there was silence.

"Wow," Ron said. "Just realised we haven't been alone together in ages."

Hermione laughed. "Yeah."

"I wonder where Lav is."

Ron always ruined the moment. Hermione sighed and wondered what to say next. "There are about two thousand species here." was what she said. She wanted to smack herself. She knew that talk like this bored Ron.

"Okay."

"Do you like, Ron?" Hermione suddenly said.

"Huh?"

Hermione blushed. "I mean do you like Lav- er Lavender," She stammered.

"Yeah," Ron replied. "I love her a lot, more than anything. Why?"

"Nothing."

"There's got to be a reason why you're asking me."

"She's... She's not right for you."

"Yeah she is."

Hermione saw red and glared at Ron. "She's cheating on you!"

"No she isn't," Ron said. "She wouldn't do that to me. She loves me."

"You think!" Hermione said. "Why do you love her so much? I don't trust her!"

Ron glared back at her. "Shut up will you. Our affair is none of your business, Hermione. Shove it, kay? We're getting married soon after this holiday. Shove it."

Hermione clenched her fists and sat herself down on the marble bit of the fountain. The sound of water splashing wasn't exactly helping her and the chirping of the birds were starting to annoy her now. She couldn't believe how far Lavender had managed to brought Ron. She had made him fall a few thousand feet in love with her, it was driving Hermione crazy. She hated Lavender. She hated her for taking Ron. She hated her for making Ron fall in love with her. She hated her for looking so pretty. She hated her for being able to get any guy she wanted. Hermione kicked at a small pebble in front of her and she heard it stop when it hit a tree. Her sudden action reminded her of somebody, but for now, she couldn't remember.

"What took you so long?" Ron asked, when Harry came back.

"Um, took a crap," Harry said. "Happy?"

"Save the details for yourself," Hermione said. She couldn't believe that Ron was going to pretend that the fight had never happened. Harry was both of their best friend for Merlin's sake!

"Let's go shopping for some things for your wife, yeah?" Ron asked Harry. "She'd probably want one of those special sandals these Sardinians wear."

__________

They were back on the ship now and were eating dinner. Somebody suddenly pulled at the empty chair and sat on it. It was Lavender, except, she was unhappy, a little bit too unhappy.

"Lav! I've missed you!" Ron said, leaning forward to give Lavender a kiss on the cheek.

To the Golden trio's surprise, she pushed him away and grumbled on about something.

"Not now," she said, rubbing at her make up. She had been crying.

Hermione could tell as she had bits of black streaks all over her cheeks. The blond man she had been with had probably dumped her along the way after enjoying the 'ride'.

"I want to go to bed," Lavender announced. She grabbed Ron's shirt, and forced him up. He hadn't even finished his fifth dish yet.

"Lav, love," he managed to say through a mouth full of food. "I'm still eating."

"So?" Lavender puffed out. "We're going to bed. Good night Harry, 'Mione."

Hermione watched as the two left and looked at Harry with an 'I think I know what is going on look'. Harry raised an eyebrow, wondering what on earth she was thinking. Hermione rolled her eyes as she remembered that men didn't think the way that women did. Where was Ginny when she needed her?


	6. Problem with the engine

The Golden trio and Lavender had already visited Palermo, Sicily, and Valetta, Malta and were out at sea again on their way to Crete. Two weeks had gone since their departure from Spain, where the Lost Lady had picked them up. Obviously more shopping had been done as well as site seeing and their rooms were filled with gifts and souvenirs. Over the passed three days, Ron and Lavender had gotten even more closer than ever much to Hermione's surprise. Lavender hadn't even been with them for most of the trips, spending time on board in the suite room that she shared with Ron. Hermione's mind told her that Lavender was using love potion but her gut feelings told her no. What on earth did Lavender have that she didn't?

Hermione stood in front of the mirror in her suite's bathroom and stared at herself. She had gained weight, thanks to the continuous eating on board. It seemed like they were being fed every four hours, it was crazy. She frowned as she remembered how thin Lavender was, even with the continuous consumption. Should she start starving herself at times too? She sighed. The last time she had been so self conscious was fourth year. Why did fourth year keep popping up in her mind?

She quickly washed her face and applied a small amount of lip gloss on her lips before walking out of the bathroom and out of her suite. Hermione had never been a fan of make up, only applying lip gloss on. She preferred natural beauty over make up.

She walked up to the roof to meet Harry, Ron, and Lavender. She could see the couple hugging each other longingly and frowned at the sight. Lavender was purposely trying to hurt her feelings. Harry waved at her and Hermione forced a smile before walking over to them.

"Are we going to be on board all day?" Lavender asked. "When are we arriving at Crete?"

"In a few hours," Harry replied.

Lavender kissed Ron on the lips then pulled him closer to her and rested her head on his chest.

"I love you, Ron," she said.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the statement that Lavender had made. She was a poisonous snake, disguised as a flower, pretty yet dangerous. She could say all sorts of things to you and make you believe her by the image she presented you, and before you knew it, she strikes you and you're dead.

"Sucks that we can't do much magic out here," Ron suddenly said, now looking into Lavender's eyes. "If the muggles weren't here, I would have made some fireworks with my wand with 'Ron and Lav' firing out everywhere."

"Awww you're so romantic!" Lavender squealed.

Hermione wanted nothing more than to beat Lavender to a pulp. Her behavior disgusted her and so did Ron. She looked at Harry who was obviously not noticing a thing as he was looking out towards the sea probably thinking about Cho.

"And I now pronounce you- husband and wife!" Ron suddenly said, before giving Lavender a full on kiss, hugging her closely to him.

Hermione sighed, wishing for once that she could be in Lavender's position or at least swap bodies with her. Why was she so unlucky with love?

______________

The Lost Lady had dropped them off at Heraklion and they had already visited the Palace of Knossos, History Museum of Crete, had a look at Amoudara beach and had walked passed the Morosini Fountain. Shopping was of course not forgotten thanks to the 'friendly' reminder of Lavender, and that had taken up more than half of their time limit before heading back to the ship.

"How many hours left?" Harry asked, noticing that there wasn't so much sunlight anymore.

"I'd like to correct you there," Hermione said. "Minutes."

Harry hid his annoyance of Lavender and put his muggle camera back in his bag. "We better head back to the ship then huh?" He muttered. "Cyprus next?"

Hermione nodded. "After Cyprus our holiday is over... Screw the advert, this isn't going to last a month is it?"

Harry chuckled and shrugged.

When they arrived at the port, they were met by a tourist crowd filled with confusion.

"Wonder what's going on?" Ron muttered.

"May I have your attention please?" somebody called out from somewhere above their heads.

Everybody looked up to find that their ship's captain was calling out for them. Even from afar, they could tell that he had rushed to put his suit on, he looked rather messy... "There is a problem with the ships engine and it appears that we won't be able to set sail immediately," He began to say.

"What are we going to do then?" Somebody shouted.

"Where are we going to stay?" another yelled.

"Are we stranded here?"

"I want my money back!"

"Calm down everyone please!" The Captain continued. "It appears that we will have to stay in Crete for about a week before setting sail again. We are sorry for the interruption of everyone's holiday. To make up for it, the fee will be half price. For lodging, you are welcomed to stay either on the ship or off the ship. That's all."

That seemed to have solved everything as all the muggles were happy that they wouldn't be heading back home with an empty wallet. Hermione looked at her friends and wondered what they were thinking at the moment. Sea birds flew above their heads, but unlike before back in the Balearic Islands, none had crapped on them. Was this a good sign? A good omen?

"Lav and I are gonna go to bed," Ron suddenly said, grabbing hold of Lavender's hand. "See you tomorrow."

"What about dinner?" Hermione asked, looking into his eyes.

"I can hold my hunger in for today," He replied, giving her a small smile, it caused Hermione's heart to flutter. "Good night."

"What the hell had she done to him?" Harry muttered rather to himself as Hermione and himself watched the couple disappear into the ship. "He's completely forgotten his favourite thing on Earth!"

Hermione shrugged and sighed. "I don't know... I don't know..."


	7. Viktor

Hermione was alone on the Lost Lady. Harry, Ron and Lavender had left early to go shopping. They, as in Harry, of course told her that they were going to go so that she didn't feel ditched. She wanted to spend some time alone so she was now reading books in the library.

She flipped a page and read a bit on the island of Crete and it's history. It had a lot of interesting facts, such as the belief that Zeus, the Greek god was born here. As she continued to read, she felt a familiar gaze on her, much too similar to the one back in her fourth year at Hogwarts and soon came to a conclusion as to who it was. Viktor Krum.

She lifted her head up to find him smiling at her with his eyes. He was wearing board shorts and a sleeveless top which showed off his well built arms and he stood in a rather relaxed position, fixing himself to leaning against a bookshelf.

"I see you are all alone?" He said after a while.

Hermione nodded. "The other's have gone off shopping."

"They left you behind?" Viktor asked, rather surprised.

Hermione nodded. "You?"

"Oh, Mariah and Sasha are just outside," he said, referring to his friends he had told her about when they had met back on the Balearic islands.

Hermione noticed someone waving towards her and was surprised to see that it was the same blond man who Lavender had been with. The man, who also had well built arms, had them wrapped around a very beautiful brunette's waist that could be no other than the beautiful young woman that Hermione had seen in the newspapers with Viktor.

She suddenly felt sorry for the beautiful brunette as the blond man had cheated on her with Lavender. She gave her a weak smile before turning her attention back to Viktor.

"That's Mariah and Sasha," Viktor said, when he noticed that she had been staring at them. "Why do you look so surprised?"

"It's just that... Never mind."

"Thinking about your friend Lavender?" He asked.

Hermione was rather surprised that he had caught it dead on and nodded.

Viktor chuckled. "Oh," he said. "That was a dare Mariah made him do. Sasha had been cocky about getting any girl he wanted and Mariah asked him to prove it by taking another guys girl. It seemed that Lavender fell for it a bit too easily."

Hermione sighed. "She's getting married to Ronald."

She suddenly felt Viktor's dark brown eyes stare right into hers and couldn't help but notice how long he looked into them for. He seemed to have a worried look on his face and also seemed to be deep in thought, as if wondering whether to tell her something or not. She remembered back in the library how he used to do that all the time, except he had been nervous too. He seemed much more confident now and didn't seem to have the same wondering look he had back then. It was very different.

Hermione suddenly wondered if she knew how she felt for Ron. Viktor always seemed to see right through her so she wouldn't be surprised if he did. At the moment, she felt as if his hand had went straight to her heart, searching for something carefully. She couldn't tell what it was so she continued to stare back at him.

"Are you all right?" was all he said after a couple of minutes.

"Um yeah." Was all she could manage to choke out.

"Mmm, that's good then."  
___________________

Three hours later, Hermione ended up hanging around Heroklion with Viktor and his friends. Everywhere they walked, Mariah and Sasha didn't seem to able to keep their hands away from each other. Sometimes they would be holding hands, other times, Mariah or Sasha would have either one of their hands going down the backside pocket of either ones jeans and sometimes an arm would be around a waist. She couldn't help but feel jealous for their love for each other and suddenly thought about the many 'what if's' she could have had with Ron.

"Would you like an ice-cream?" Viktor suddenly asked her.

Hermione stopped walking and suddenly noticed that the two of them were alone. "Huh?"

"Ice-cream?" he said again. "I'll pay."

"I'm all right... Where are they? Mariah and Sasha"

"Busy..."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Hmmmm."

They didn't talk much after that. It was now around twelve so the sun was beaming down on them at it's hottest. Hermione started to sweat a lot.

"Water?" Viktor asked.

"Huh?"

"Water?"

"Oh, thank you."

Hermione drank some off Viktor's water and gave it back. She didn't know why she was talking to him like this. She didn't know why everything felt so awkward. She looked at him and he didn't seem to find their conversation any more comfortable than she did. She suddenly felt that she had to thank him for the effort he was putting to strike up a conversation.

"It's quite hot isn't it?" Hermione said.

"Yes it is." Viktor said.

Hermione saw a sweat droplet on Viktor's face and suddenly reached out to wipe it off but it fell before she could touch it and landed on his right pectoral. Although her eyes were fixed on his well built chest where the sweat droplet had landed, her hand was on his right cheek and she suddenly felt herself blush furiously. She forced herself to not meet his eyes before giving up. She looked up at him and suddenly realised how much more he had grown since the last time they had stood so close to each other.

"I'm sorry," Hermione blurted out, quickly retrieving her hand back. "I didn't- um sorry."

"It is fine," He said, looking rather flustered. "Want a handkerchief? You are sweating too."

"Um. Thank you." Hermione said, quickly wiping her face before giving it back. "Are you hungry? Want to grab something to eat?"

"Sure."

_______________

Hermione didn't know what was up with her. Everything seemed so awkward with Viktor now she couldn't even talk to him. They had went a couple of miles away from Herkalion even though Heraklion had many restaurants and had just finished eating and had left the restaurant they had eaten at. It wasn't anything fancy and was much more of a fast food restaurant than anything else. People left and people went.

The two of them continued to walk in silence and Hermione noticed that everyone here seemed to walk around in a swimsuit of some sort rather than proper clothing. They were at a sea side area after all. They didn't seem to sweat as much as the two did and she suddenly felt an urge to take her clothes off and just dress in a swim suit like everyone else did.

Hermione quietly gasped to herself as Viktor suddenly took his sleeveless shirt off and stood next to her with just his shorts on. She tried not to stare at his well built body, with the lovely muscular cuts down his hips and hard abdominal muscles. She could see it harden slightly as Viktor breathed in and out and couldn't seem to tear her eyes away. She could tell that he had worked even more on his muscles since the last time she had seen him shirtless back at Hogwarts as he looked fantastic.

She looked away soon with a blush and was looking out towards the sea. The way the waves moved was very inviting and she suddenly longed to be part of it. She wanted the water all over her and to cool her from the heat...

"Are you feeling hot?" Viktor asked. "Maybe let's go for a swim?"

Hermione liked the idea. "Sure."

"Let's go to the beach then. Let's swim and stuff."


	8. The beach

The beach hit Hermione's eyes with the sight of Mediterranean paradise and Hermione smiled to herself as her feet felt the warmth of the small amount of brown tainted white sand. Her flip flops were being held by her left hand and her right hand was currently pulling her hair away from her face. The pleasant and gentle wind of the sea met her face and Hermione smiled as it caressed her. She felt happy that Crete was welcoming her in such a way like this, it was as if it was literally begging her to stay and she was almost, almost falling for it.

She could see Viktor stretching his muscles a bit, preparing himself for the swim. Being the athlete he was, he knew that he had to stretch before swimming or risk hurting himself even in the most tiniest of ways. Being a seeker, especially the most prized one of the century, he had to be careful, the slightest of an injury could mean the end of his wild career. She saw the way his muscles moved and blushed. She could see several other people, the majority of them being woman, staring their way. A sudden protective feeling came over her and she glared at them.

"Do you have a swimsuit?" Viktor suddenly asked her.

"I haven't brought one or worn one to be honest." Hermione said, suddenly feeling glum. She probably couldn't swim then, she didn't want to go swimming in her clothes.

"Why not go buy one?" he said. "We can come back for a swim later. I'll pay, I'd like to buy you a gift."

Hermione smiled at him. "Seriously, Viktor, you don't need to. And I have to admit, your English has really improved, I hardly hear an accent!"

"Thank you," he said.

_________

After less than five minutes in one of the small stores nearby, Hermione ended up wearing a red bikini, glaring out her Gryffindor pride. She had shorts on too so that she didn't feel her legs being that naked. She could see Viktor stare at her for a moment and he seemed to be blushing. Hermione blushed without thinking and smiled in a rather embarrassed way.

"You look nice," Viktor said.

"So do you."

"We swim now?"

Arriving at the beach, Hermione found themselves being greeted by the same muggle women's staring at Viktor. They had the lustful look on their faces as they stared at his body. Hermione felt a need to hex them to mind their own business. Even in the muggle world, Viktor somehow managed to find himself in some sort of celebrity position where everyone was looking at him. She felt sorry.

"Where are we going to keep our stuff?" Hermione asked.

"Give them to me, I'll cast magic on them so that they are untraceable by others or visible. Only we'll be able to see them."

As Hermione gave him her things, she felt their hands brush but she ignored it and started to tie her hair up.

"Why tie your hair?" Viktor asked, after quickly performing a spell without anyone noticing. "I like it untied. You look beautiful."

Hermione blushed. "Really?"

"Don't make me start that conversation again we had all those years ago, Hermione," he said with a chuckle. "You have always been beautiful, I told you so."

"You were trying to flatter me back then."

"Flattery with meaning and being meaningful. I meant and mean it still."

Hermione squealed with surprise as Viktor suddenly charged at her and grabbed her around the waist before lifting her onto his left shoulder.

"Viktor! What are you doing?" Hermione asked, suddenly finding herself laughing.

"Going for a swim? Ready!?"

Before her answer came, he was already charging out towards the sea and Hermione squealed with delight as her body met the sea. She felt the salty water reach all over her body, cooling her down from the heat. For some reason, she didn't mind having Viktor's hands all over her. Not literally, just her waist, but still. He was only teasing and having fun with her so there was no harm done. Harry had done that with her a lot too before so it made no difference.

When Hermione came up to the surface for air, Viktor came up with her and Hermione laughed out loud at Viktor. His hair, which was now about four inches long covered his face and she found this funny.

"What's so funny?" Viktor asked, pushing his hair aside with a finger.

"Your hair."

"Don't like it?"

"No. I hate it."

"Really?"

"I'm kidding, but i'd prefer it if you gave it a bit of a trim," Hermione said. "I was laughing at how your hair had covered your face. You looked hilarious."

Viktor raised an eyebrow at her before splashing some water at her.

Hermione gasped and stared at him with a playful look on her face. "You did not just do that!"

"I'm afraid I just did."

Hermione splashed some water back at him and soon an all out water splashing war started. She laughed as she was continuously sprayed with water. She soon gave up trying to splash water at Viktor and was now trying to run away from him.

"Why run away?"

"It's because you're winning!"

She knew that he had caught up with her as she ran across the shallow sea water as his hands were on her waist again. She could see the earlier women who had been looking at Viktor looking at them again. She was suddenly lifted up into the air and could feel her feet dangling aimlessly.

"What are you doing?" She asked as Viktor sat her on his shoulders.

"Giving you a rest."

"By placing me on your shoulders?"

Hermione could feel her heels press against Viktor's abdominal muscles and could feel the hours of hard work he had put onto them. She probably weighed nothing to him.

"Yes?"

Her hands were in his and she could feel the breeze hit them again. She felt like she was on top of the world and she yelled out "Ah!" as if waiting for an echo to call back to her like you could on the Swiss mountains.

"Ah!" Viktor copied.

She suddenly didn't care that everyone was looking at them like they were crazy. The two of them were having fun and that was all that mattered. Viktor started to run all of a sudden and Hermione gasped at the speed he was going at.

"Viktor! Slow down! I feel like I'm slipping off of your shoulders!"

He laughed. "Enjoying the ride? Feeling cooler, no?"

"I do feel cooler, I actually feel kind of cold again!"

He stopped running and lifted her back down before brushing a wet tendril of hair away from her face. He was looking into her eyes with a sort of sweetness that Hermione suddenly couldn't recognise. He suddenly touched her shoulder.

"Tag! You're it!" he said.

"What?" Hermione said.

"Tag you're it!" he repeated.

"What are you playing at?" she asked him.

"Playing a game!"

He took a couple of steps away from her. "Catch me if you can! If you don't, I won't give your things back to you."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "That's not fair!"

"Life's not fair," he said and began to run backwards with a cheeky smile on his face.

Hermione smiled to herself as he started to get further and further away from her. He was definitely less quite and less to himself now. He was in a way, happier, and open. He didn't keep much to himself anymore and Hermione was slowly beginning to see how Viktor really was. Back then, when they had been in love with each other, Viktor had been open to her only when they were alone, but he hadn't been this open. Maybe it was that he was in a foreign country back then which was why he behaved in such a way, maybe it was because she was a muggleborn and he was trying to protect her from the purebloods from his school... Maybe he had fully grown up.

Hermione started to run after him and yelled at him to slow down. He did every now and then but only to tease her at how slow she was. She finally caught up with him after he tripped over something in the water and tackled him by the waist.

The two of them fell into the sea water and Hermione was laughing. "Viktor! I caught you!"

He chuckled. "I know."

Hermione didn't realise that she was straddling him and was literally smiling so much it looked as if her lips were going to tear. The sun was less brighter now and Hermione could see more shadows on Viktor's face. His nose was still slightly off the center as it had been broken many times but Hermione found this distraction adorable. She looked at him in the eyes and could see him looking back at her with the same sweetness that was similar to the flow of honey.

"The sun is already starting to set," Viktor said. "I think we should start making our way back to Heraklion."

"You're right," Hermione said, getting off of him, still without realising that she had actually been sitting right on his in between.

Soaking wet, the two of them retrieved their things and made their way out of the beach. Hermione smiled to herself as the women stared at her enviously as Viktor was in her company.

____________

When they got back to the ship, Viktor walked her to her room before leaving to go back to his own. There was no mention of when they were going to meet again, but Hermione didn't care for now. She had been happy today, enjoying time and the fun she had. She had to thank Viktor sometimes later for today, she definitely hadn't had so much fun in a long time.

She still didn't go into her room. She was waiting for Viktor to disappear around a corner which was several meters away from her. After he disappeared, she opened her door and began to make her way in when a voice stopped her.

"Where have you been all day? We couldn't find you when we got back. You didn't even leave a note behind." It was Ron.

"Went out to have fun by myself. Got a problem?" Hermione asked.

"Um, no?" Ron said. "We were just worried that you had been all alone today. By the look on your face you look like you had fun. Why do you smell so salty?"

By the expression on Ron's face, he obviously had not seen Viktor drop him off or even see him.

"Are you sniffing me?" Hermione asked, teasingly.

Ron blushed. "No! I could smell you from ten meters away! Where did you go?"

"Swimming at the beach."

"Oh."

"Now if you don't mind, may you leave?"

"We got dinner."

"I'm skipping for today. I need a shower."

"No dinner?" Ron asked, looking slightly disappointed.

"You skipped yours yesterday."

"That was because-"

"Of Lavender." Hermione said with a 'I am pissed now off' look on her face. She didn't want to have her day ruined with the mention of Lavender after such a good time. "Can you please go? I need a shower. Like you said, I smell horrible, now leave."

Ron's eyes became bigger. "Merlin! Did I offend you by saying you stunk?"

Hermione shut the door in his face and sighed without an answer. Ron was always there to look to to help ruin your day. He was such a nice friend. She made her way to the showers and sighed as she took her shorts and bikini off and turned the hot water on. The hot water rained down on her and she sighed at this. She wondered what was going to happen tomorrow.


	9. Gorge of Samaria

Hermione could feel Ron's eyes on her as they ate their breakfast. He hadn't stopped looking at her as soon as they had met and he seemed to be trying to stop himself from glaring. He was apparently not very pleased about something that happened yesterday from what Hermione could see so far but she really couldn't care about him. If he was still pissed off about the other day, it was none of her business.

"What's his problem?" Harry whispered to Hermione. "What happened?"

"Where were you yesterday?" Ron asked Hermione, before she could answer him.

"I told you, I went for a swim."

Hermione could feel all three of them analyse her face to see if she was telling the truth. She could feel her nerves start to shake for some reason but she managed to control them.

"She's telling the truth." Harry said after a while. He gave her a strange look but dismissed it as soon as possible. It was as if he was wondering if she had been with someone all day...

"You've got a tan," Ron suddenly said. "Didn't you put sun screen on yesterday?"

"I forgot. I had-"

"-Too much fun alone? I get it." Ron interrupted, looking furiously towards his left to avoid eye contact.

"What is wrong with you?" Hermione asked, suddenly getting up from her seat with her fists clenched against the table. "You have been so moody all morning and I am absolutely disgusted by your behavior. Grow up will you! You're acting like a two year old! I'm leaving."

Hermione walked out of the dining hall as fast and as furiously as she could and was now out on the ship's deck. She knew she had some answering to do for Harry later but for now it didn't matter. There were a couple of people who were already swimming at seven in the morning and seemed to be enjoying themselves. She smiled at the sudden memory of the day before as she watched a couple of kids splash water at each other. Viktor had sure made her feel alive.

"Hermione?" a voice called out.

She felt her heart flutter it's wings with surprise at the sound of the deep baritone. She was suddenly happy again as she turned around to face dark brown eyes.

"Good morning." Viktor said. "Had enough sleep?"

"I- have," Hermione answered, finding herself stuttering again. "You?"

"Okay. Mariah and Sasha kind of kept me up with the noises they were making next door..."

Hermione giggled, trying not to imagine what it must have been like...

"Any plans for today?" Viktor asked. "Mariah, Sasha and I are going to head out to the gorge of Samaria. Want to come?"

Hermione blinked for a moment to think quickly to herself. She was obviously not going to spend any time with any of her holiday friends today after the scene in the dining hall. She was all alone with nothing much to do and a very fit man was standing in front of her and asking her to join him, what else could she say? "Sure."

_____________

After packing quickly and meeting up with the couple, Hermione and the rest made their way to the gorge of Samaria. She could see tons of vegetation everywhere hitting her eyes with the brightest and darkest of greens that she had ever seen. She could see many mountains too and the way the sun shone over them was just too beautiful to believe. A couple of metres away, Viktor was seen quickly handing out autographs to some magic folk. Mariah had gone to the toilet which left Hermione alone with Sasha.

"This place is pretty, yes?"

Hearing the voice right next to her ear, surprised her and Hermione found herself gasping with surprise.

"Sorry I scared you," Sasha immediately said, chuckling. "It's just that you seem so surprised by this. There are mountains like this in Viktor's country too. Have you not seen before? I was thinking that maybe he has taken you to see them?"

"Oh, he has invited me but I never really found the time to go before."

"Do you have muggle camera with you? I'll take a photo? You want to keep this memory after all, especially one with me."

Hermione dismissed the flirtation as she thought that maybe that was the way Sasha talked. She took her muggle camera out and he quickly took a photo for her.

"What are you doing?" Viktor said, as he arrived.

"Just taking photos for a pretty lady."

Hermione couldn't help but blush as she wasn't used to hearing people call her beautiful. She thought she saw Viktor flash a quick glare at Sasha, as if warning him of something.

"Are we ready to go yet?" Mariah asked.

_______________

Walking through the gorge was tiring Hermione out but she pushed herself on as she saw that none of her other companions were tired. She could feel the sweat all over her body and felt rather jealous that Mariah didn't seem to have any.

The three of them were several meters away from Hermione already and she could see that they were getting further and further away from her. She was surprised to see that Sasha was suddenly slowing down and was soon right next to her.

"Are you tired?" He asked her.

"No." she said.

Sasha chuckled. "You do not need to lie. Let me hold your bag for you."

Before she could protest, he had already taken her bag and was carrying it on top of his own. She felt bad now that she was holding nothing except her camera and a wand in her pocket. "You really do not need to do this."

"No, it's all right. I'm glad I am making you feel better."

They walked a couple of meters more and Hermione noticed how the sand and pebbles here were much different to those from the start of the gorge. They looked much more brown in colour and seemed to be filled with life. She then noticed the way Sasha's legs muscle moved and immediately looked away.

"You see that cypress over there?" he said. "They say, is over two thousand years old."

"Really?"

"Yes, want picture?"

"Thank you."

Spending some more time with Sasha and getting to know him made her realise that he wasn't so bad as she thought he was from her first impression. Obviously, anyone would have thought that he was some player after seeing what he had done to both Mariah and Lavender.

"We were wondering where you two were!" a voice suddenly called out. It was Mariah.

She walked over to them and grabbed Sasha's hand with a smile and kissed him. "Merlin, I love you Sasha."

"I love you too."

"Why are you holding her bag?" Viktor asked, suddenly appearing in front of them as Sasha and Mariah separated.

"She was tired."

"Why don't you let Viktor hold her bag now?" Mariah said. "Maybe you are tired now?"

Sasha suddenly flexed his arm muscles and flashed a grin. "Sasha is never tired!"

Viktor rolled his eyes as Sasha began to show off in front of his girlfriend and everyone else who were either with them or passing by. "Let's go."

They soon passed by the village of Samaria and were now by the river bed which meant that they were almost finished. Viktor seemed to be rather upset about something but kept it to himself. Sasha and Mariah never seemed to be keeping their hands away from each other and Hermione was once again alone in the back.

The sound of the river flowing by soothed Hermione as she felt nature surrounding her come closer to her then ever. She could see that they had to cross the river a number of times. but knowing that they were almost done kept her spirits up.

After a few minutes, Sasha suddenly appeared by her side and was holding a huge grin on his handsome face. "Do you see the gates? They known as Iron Gates of Samariah?"

Indeed, looking on ahead, Hermione saw two mountains, very close together, leaving nothing but a narrow entrance for the light to come through.

"Picture again? I want to be in it too this time!"

Before Hermione could do anything, Sasha's face was next to hers and he was holding her camera. The closeness of their bodies didn't seem to be worrying Sasha, even with the presence of his girlfriend a few meters away, so Hermione decided that it was all right.

"One, two, three, smile!"

Hermione looked at the photo with Sasha and saw the Iron gates behind them. Sasha, looked very good in the photo and Hermione felt embarrassed as she saw nothing but a sweaty and tired looking Hermione, look back at her.

"Something wrong?" he asked. He suddenly smiled. "Do not worry, you look beautiful in the photo."

"We're almost done!" Mariah said. "Last one to the gates is dragon poo!"

______________

They were back on the ship now and Hermione found herself eating dinner on a different table. It felt weird not to be eating dinner with Harry, Ron and Lavender but it didn't matter. At least the people she was with didn't nag her about her day.

She looked at Viktor and he still seemed rather moody. She didn't know why he was acting the way he was and felt that he was being rather childish. She watched as he played with his food with his knife and tutted.

Mariah had already gone back to her room as she was a rather fast eater. Sasha was almost done with his meal and seemed to be watching her every five minutes. She returned him a smile when he gave her his twentieth look.

"That's enough Aleksander!" Viktor said.

"Pfft, is Viktor jealous here?" Sasha said with a chuckle.

He suddenly stood up and walked over to Hermione before sitting on the seat next to her. He put an arm around her shoulders and looked at Viktor with a smile.

Hermione didn't know what was going on but she did know that Viktor was soon going to throw a very big tantrum. "Sasha, that's enough. Why don't you go back to Mariah?"

"Sure."

He gave his goodbyes and immediately left, looking rather pleased with himself.

Hermione looked at Viktor and sighed. "What is wrong with you today?"

"Nothing."

"You're behavior at the gorge says else-wise."

"I don't want to talk about it. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

And with that, Viktor left, leaving Hermione a tad more than just confused. She didn't know why, but she felt her heartbreaking. She hoped that she found out what was up tomorrow. She muttered a goodnight to Viktor as he disappeared and made her way to her own room.


	10. Lavender Brown

A couple of hours had gone since she had parted with Viktor and all Hermione had been doing was toss and turn on her queen sized bed. She kicked at her silk blankets before pulling her pillow on top of her head to cover her vision from the streaks of light that had found its way around the curtains of her window. Hiding her face inside the softness of the pillow seemed to calm her down and she sighed as the softness of the silk caressed her face.

She didn't know what she had done to upset Viktor, he hadn't been happy nor smiled once whilst she had been hanging out with him all day. He seemed to get even more angrier when Sasha had gotten close to her, physically-wise though. Viktor being good friends with Sasha, probably knew best that Sasha was the type to 'stick' to a girl, he didn't really mean anything. Plus, he had a girlfriend so he was only playing around. Why was he so mad?

There was a sudden click of the door and Lavender suddenly appeared in her room. Hermione having gotten used to reaching for her wand immediately at the sound of something unfamiliar held her wand back down as soon as she realised who it was. Lavender was obviously scared to death as she had been pointing the wand threateningly at her, the days of looking for the horcruxes had never really left her, but Hermione was glad it didn't as she had gotten a chance to 'threaten' Lavender. Lavender's eyes widened as Hermione shook her wand-yielding hand.

"MERLIN HERMIONE! CALM DOWN! PUT THAT BLOODY THING AWAY!" Lavender screamed. "I'M NOT A BLOODY DEATH EATER! THE WAR IS OVER SINCE FOREVER FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!"

"It is away," Hermione muttered, putting it back into her pocket. "How did you get in? I locked the door."

Lavender rolled her eyes, giving Hermione the look of 'I thought you knew everything', which was in fact, almost true. "I used 'Alohomora'," she said, in a matter of fact way. "Plus, I'm a witch, I have a wand. Remember?"

"We're on a muggle cruise ship, Lavender," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "I thought it was 'no magic' that we agreed upon."

"Like I ever followed the rules-" Before Hermione could argue, Lavender quickly added. "And it's not like Harry, Ronnykins or yourself ever followed the rules at school. Year one.... Year two... Year three... Year four... etc... Then running away from school?"

Hermione blushed, knowing that what Lavender was saying was true. She was a good girl anyway so it didn't matter... really... "That doesn't count!"

"Whatever."

There was silence for a moment and Hermione felt awkward as Lavender continued to just stand there in the middle of her room. It wasn't that she wasn't used to her presence, she had been living in the same room as her for seven years back at Hogwarts... It was just that they loved the same man... Or did they?

She looked into Lavender's eyes and noticed that she seemed to be thinking about something... something or someone that was obviously not Ron as there was a different kind of flicker of light that was dancing about in her eyes. Her standing posture told the same story too, she was definitely thinking about someone else as she wasn't standing up with the usual special flirty way she did for Ron.

"Where were you yesterday?" Lavender suddenly asked, breaking the moment of silence.

It surprised Hermione as she had never really taken the time to strike up a conversation with her. The only time Lavender ever really talked to her was whenever it was about clothes, make up, or men. Hermione's logic and suspicions told her that she wasn't starting a conversation because she wanted to, Ron had told her to.

"Did Ron tell you to ask me?" she asked.

"Hmmm? What?" Lavender mumbled.

"I know you heard me."

Lavender sighed and crossed her arms as if she were the one who was supposed to be annoyed. She glared at Hermione for a moment before opening her mouth to let out a billion words that had probably been waiting to burst out for the whole day or so.

"Why the hell will you not tell me where you've been? It's not a big deal is it? Ron has been nagging me about you all day, it's always Hermione this Hermione that, blah blah blah blah blah. Do you know how annoying Ronald can get at times? ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO YOU? It's literally driving me insane. Harry's nothing to worry about and he doesn't seem to be bothered by your disappearances for the last two days, but WHAT THE HELL. Just tell me where you've been all day so that I can go back to Ronald and tell him about it. It's not like I care about where you've been but I'm doing this for him. If I don't tell him any time soon, he is going to murder me by asking more about you. Merlin! TELL ME WHERE YOU'VE BEEN ALREADY SO I CAN GET THIS OVER WITH! I don't have time to listen to Ronald all day! HERMIONE, HERMIONE, HERMIONE, HERMIONE. BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH. WHERE THE HELL IS SHE? TELL ME ALREADY!"

Hermione stared at her with a half glare as she finished off her last sentence. Lavender Brown was getting married to Ronald Weasley soon, how could she even talk about her future husband like that? Had she no respect? Hermione wanted to argue with her about whether she cared about Ron at all or not but something was keeping her back today. The rapid pace of her heart as she thought about Ron seemed to be slower today, as if fading away slowly... slowly... The millions of butterflies that were supposed to flutter in her stomach had somehow managed to escape from their cage. The nervousness and worries weren't there anymore. What was going on?

"Well? Are you going to tell me or not?" Lavender asked.

"Why are you interrogating me? I have my own life! Leave me alone!" Hermione muttered angrily. "I don't have time for this nonsense"

"Where did you spend your time on the last two days then?"

Hermione was about to answer her but stopped herself as she realised that Lavender had set a trap for her to fall into to answer the question that she had come to ask her about in the first place. She glared at her and sighed before getting off of her bed to stand up properly. Lying down on her bed and having Lavender at a higher position than her was putting Lavender at an easier position to argue with her. Hermione, being just a tiny bit taller than her glared at her before reaching for her wand again.

Lavender eyes flickered to her hand for a moment, wondering what was going on. Hermione smiled as she teased Lavender by gripping onto her wand before pretending to take it out.

"H-Her-'Mione!" Lavender said. "I- Y-You don't need your wand! Calm down! I was only joking about needing to ask you about that... I just wanted to know... If you were all right being alone for the past two days... You haven't been with other people right?"

Just then, the sound of knocking was heard. It wasn't a fast one, but not a slow one either. The person knocked for a bit more before a voice called out. "Hermi-own? Are you there?"

Lavender stared at Hermione with a surprised expression as the voice was a deep baritone and definitely belonged to a man. Hermione started to worry as Lavender could jump to conclusions and blabber on about Hermione dating him or something to Ron who would... get very very mad at her. Lavender's brown eyes turned slightly darker as she began to think of all sorts of conclusions. A small smirk slowly appeared on her face.

"Lav-Lavender! It's not what you think!" Hermione said frantically. The situation was completely reversed now, Hermione fate now lay on Lavender's hands.

"Are you sleeping Hermione?" The deep baritone continued in a rather worried and upset voice. "I'm sorry if I vaking you up. Yesterday I'm sorry too, I haff vrong to haff been mad at you." He was getting his grammar and tenses all wrong, something he had done all those years ago if he was anxious or worried about something. "I vill coming back later then if you are mad vright now."

"Lav- No!" Hermione said as Lavender ran and reached for the door.

She opened it quickly and her jaws dropped as a muscular olive toned man with sexy disheveled black hair stood in front of her. His eyes widened with surprise as he obviously hadn't been expecting to see Lavender. Hermione smiled for a slight moment as she saw the way his muscles on his arms moved.

"OH. My. God. Merlin. Full stop. No way." Lavender began as she stared at Viktor Krum. "You ditched us for two days to hang out with KRUM?! Why didn't you tell me!? I- I mean us! I've got to go tell Ronald and Harry!"

"No! Lavender! No!" Hermione said, but it was too late, instead of running as promised by the 'no magic' rule, Lavender had Apparated away. "Shit." Hermione muttered. She lifted her face up and gasped as she saw Viktor. She had forgotten that he was there. She glared at him for a moment and collapsed onto her bed with a sigh. Today was going to be a long day.


	11. Touch of the lips

"I see I had bad timing," Viktor muttered as he stood by the door with an 'oh crap I'm so sorry' look on his face. "I'm sorry." he said.

Hermione sighed, wishing that she could be alone. With all the things that had been going on, she couldn't see where it would end. She didn't blame Viktor for what had happened though. If only Lavender hadn't come...

"No, it's all right. I'm always finding myself trouble anyway somehow," She mumbled, suddenly feeling tired, she had only just gotten up. "I need to go wash and brush my teeth. Would it be all right if I see you later? I'm not in a good mood right now."

"I will leave then." he said, monotone and expressionless apart from the apologetic look.

"No, it's all right. You can stay and watch tv." she said, feeling guilty to have upset him. She didn't know why she always felt guilty when it came to Viktor Krum.

_______________

Hermione lay on her bath tub, her body hidden by the bubbles that surrounded her. She had brushed her teeth and washed her hair and was trying to relax her body through the heat of the water. She sighed as she thought about the man who was no further than fifteen or so meters away from her watching tv.

Since meeting up with him, a lot of things had changed and a lot of trouble had risen. Her feelings for Ron wasn't as strong anymore and she was beginning to think how childish and silly he was. Also, since seeing him and especially today, more trouble seemed to pop up, not because of him though... Just... problems to do with love?

She frowned as she wondered about the different scenarios that could happen after Ron heard about whatever Lavender was going to tell him. Obviously whatever she was going to tell him was going to be 80% inaccurate, she was going to tell him whatever she could to receive the reaction she wanted to get.

Hermione looked at the clock and found that almost an hour had gone. She sighed and quickly dried herself with her wand before putting her clothes on. Since Lavender broke the rules on magic use, the rule wasn't on anymore...

She looked at her mirror and quickly applied some sun screen before walking out of her bathroom. She didn't care about makeup. She walked out of her bedroom and into her living room to find him watching tv on... it was a blank screen.

"Weren't you watching tv?" Hermione asked.

"Um, no." he said. "I don't like tv. It messes with my eyes. I need to keep them safe for catching the snitch."

"Right." Hermione said. "Sorry about making you wait an hour. Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

There was a sudden continuous banging on her door and it didn't take any longer than a second to guess who it was. Hermione felt her chest tighten and she lost her breath, not because of having someone take her breath away but because of fear. It was as if all the oxygen in the room had been sucked out leaving nothing but carbon dioxide, nitrogen... Ron could be incredibly scary and unpredictable when he was angry, there was no knowing what he was going to do.

"'MIONE!" a voice began to yell, obviously belonging to Ron. "'MIONE! OPEN THE DOOR ALREADY! FOR MERLIN'S SAKE! OPEN THE DOOR!"

She caught the worried look Viktor was giving her and his eyes were questioning her about what was going on. There was a sudden unreadable expression on his face before a look of remembrance of the past appeared. He scowled.

"I do not like the way his voice sounds," He said. He stood up with a hard to read expression with his fists clenched and he looked towards the door. "What does he want?"

Hermione didn't know what to think. There was one apoplectic man standing outside of her door and one man standing right in front of her who looked ready to beat somebody up. Her life was a mess.

"I'm not really sure. He-"

"'MIONE!" Ron continued on. "Are you not going to open the door? Are you in there with him right now? Been sleeping with him? Huh? Don't be shy! I know he's in there! Come on out and be a man Krum! What have you been doing to her?!"

Viktor scowled even harder and looked at Hermione for a moment. "I will keep hold of my temper like I always have for you, Hermione." he said. "He is being the silly little boy he always had been. He needs to grow up."

Hermione was about to say something but there was a sudden loud bang. The door opened and a very red faced Ronald Weasley could be seen across the room. As soon as he spotted Viktor he glared at him and took his wand out.

"You filthy ugly Bulgarian womanizer!" he said, as angrily as possible. Words didn't need to explain how Ronald Weasley felt, you just needed to look at his face. "Give me three reasons why I should not kill you this instant!"

Viktor rolled his eyes at the childish behavior of the 'little boy' in front of him.

"Ronald-" Hermione began, worried about what was going to happen, but she was interrupted.

"Stay out of this 'Mione!" Ron said, or yelled which properly defined how he said it. "You'll thank me for this!"

"Firstly, I am not the womanizer you think of me to be. I would prefer it if you would check over your description of me as filthy ugly. I would think that more than half of the wizardry female population would disagree with you. Your mother would probably agree too."

Hermione knew that Viktor had said that to piss Ron off some more, it had obviously had worked as Ron's grip on his wand was stronger. All of the yelling and commotion were bringing all sorts of emotions into her and she could feel them bubble inside of her, it was boiling inside of her. The temperature started to feel hot and the room started to become rather too small for her. She suddenly wished that everyone would just leave her alone so that she could breathe again.

"A cocky man are you? Think you're so hot?" Ron began to ramble with a furious look on his face. "I beg to differ! Lavender thinks your ugly! Ha!" He glared at Viktor whilst looking pleased with himself. He then began to yell again. "I WANT YOU TO LEAVE 'MIONE ALONE AND NEVER TALK TO HER AGAIN! LAVENDER'S TOLD ME ALL ABOUT THE KINKY LITTLE THINGS YOU HAVE BEEN DOING WITH HER! USED THE IMPERIUS CURSE ON HER HAVE YOU? SHE'S MINE! YOU DON'T TOUCH HER! YOU DON'T TALK TO HER! YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING WITH HER EVER AGAIN! LEAVE NOW OR I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU! LEAVE THIS FUCKING ROOM NOW!"

Ron lifted his wand up and was about to fire a spell at an unprotected Viktor Krum but the action that Hermione took surprised him so much that he dropped his wand.

"RONALD WEASLEY!" Hermione screamed, all of the mixed emotion in her bursting out. "STOP YELLING AT HIM LIKE A SILLY LITTLE BOY AND GROW UP ALREADY! SINCE WHEN HAVE I EVER BECOME THE PROPERTY OF RONALD WEASLEY? ISN'T LAVENDER ENOUGH FOR YOU? NEED MORE TOYS TO PLAY WITH YOU DISGUSTING PERVERT?! AND SINCE WHEN DID YOU GET TO CHOOSE WHO I LOVE AND DO ALL THE KINKY THINGS THAT I WANT TO DO WITH HIM?! I HAVE MY OWN LIFE RONALD! I'M GROWN UP! I'M NOT A LITTLE GIRL ANYMORE! LEAVE THIS FUCKING ROOM NOW OR I'LL HEX YOUR TWO TINY BALLS OFF! I NEED SOME TIME ALONE! GET OUT! NOW!"

Ron didn't need to be asked twice, he had never seen Hermione at such an angered state before. He gave Viktor one last glare before running off like a scared 'little boy'. He was probably going to have another row with Lavender about what had just happened.

Hermione sat down on a chair and sighed deeply as the door slowly shut. For a moment, she pictured it as if Ron was walking out of her life... her love life... with the door shutting firmly shut to keep him out forever. The last ten minutes had had so much going on, she didn't know what to think. She was once again, tired and awfully exhausted. Looking at Viktor, he seemed to look as normal as ever except something was amusing him. He was smiling again except it wasn't his usual smile. Something was up...

"What?" Hermione asked, her voice hoarse from the yelling. "Do you find something funny?"

"'Since when did you get to choose who I love and do all the kinky things that I want to do with him'?" Viktor began, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

Hermione blushed, suddenly realising that what she had said had sounded the way it did. She hadn't mean it to come out like that, she had just been so furious with Ron... More trouble comes in with another... that was her life, period.

"'I'll hex your two tiny balls off'?" he continued, pretending to look serious yet the grin on his face didn't help him. "How do you know how big his are?"

Hermione blushed furiously and threw a cushion from her chair at him suddenly finding herself smiling with him. It obviously didn't hurt him as it just bounced off of his very hard muscles. "Shut up." she mumbled, hiding her face in her hands.

Viktor suddenly bent down so they were eye level to each other. Hermione could see just how dark his bark brown eyes were and she felt herself sink into them as cliche as it sounded. She suddenly forgot all that had just happened as she found herself sinking further and further into the depths of his eyes. It covered her up and she couldn't breathe all of a sudden. She saw his lips twitch for a moment as if he wanted to say something.

"Did you mean exactly what you said?" he asked, before pausing. "I mean... When you told him he couldn't choose who you loved... It came out in a way that makes me think that you maybe... You know."

Hermione frowned as she looked at the man in front of her. She noted in her head quickly that she had to think before saying something. She was good at logical things where the facts were all down and given to her by other people, but when it came to herself, she didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to say.

"People don't usually say things without meaning what they said," he told her, before gulping something down his throat. He was nervous "They say things unexpectedly... things that have been in their thoughts for a long time... Did you mean it? Or should I say... Do you mean it?"

"I don't know..." Hermione mumbled.

He brought his face closer to hers and their lips were no further apart then a small movement. He looked into her eyes once again and just looked at her.

Hermione could feel her heart start to thump faster, literally beating her chest up as it used to have when she had been around Ron. There was the weird fluttering feel in her stomach again and she couldn't think logically nor properly. The feeling of nervousness and not knowing what to do crept up on her and she just stared at him with blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Hermione..." he said in a small whisper.

He then met her lips with his and that was when her mind really blew up. All her thoughts, worries and problems were gone and it was just the two of them alone in her room, one sitting on a chair and the other on his knees. Their lips were just touching, there were no movements. Her butterflies in her stomach were calming down now and just felt like the gentle beatings of a birds wings when flying. She felt like she was flying in paradise, across the sea, high in the sky without worries. She could feel all the desire and longing from just the touch that Viktor had for her... The problem was, she didn't know how she felt for him.

**A/N I hope you liked this chapter. And thanks for all the wonderful reviews. I would appreciate it if there some more comments on where to improve on my story. Kay thanks.**


	12. I love you

Hermione's senses left her and her head filled with logic somehow disappeared like water evaporating into thin air. She didn't know what to do or how to think. Nothing around her seemed to be understandable as Viktor continued to have the presence of his lips on hers. She could taste him on her lips and her tongue and suddenly felt the desire for him fill her up. She felt the passion that had once been there come to her again and she wondered if maybe this was the moment, her moment. Had she not been looking clearly enough to see that what she had really been wanting all this time? Had it been being out at sea that made it all clear for her to understand like the crystal clear water?

She felt a battle going on inside of her head, her logical side which had slowly recovered and her emotional side. Her head told her that she could be confusing her feelings with a lie, a dream, whilst her heart told her that this was it, this was her time, her shot at true love.

She could feel Viktor's hands on her cheeks now, caressing them softly and carefully as if she were made of fragile glass. He was being so careful with her, as he had always been when they had been together in the past. She closed her eyes and took in his wonderful scent and wondered if the sudden fast beating of her heart and the beating of wings in her stomach was the truth that maybe she loved him back.

The short amount of time with him was way to awkward though. It had only been less than a week since meeting him but it felt like a year or more had gone by. Maybe love wasn't something that needed to take time, maybe love just happened and was there ready for you, but only if you were willing to take it and receive it happily.

His lips left hers and she opened her eyes to find him smiling at her like some love-struck boy.

"I hope I have not scared you?" He said. "I'm sorry about that, I couldn't help it. I just needed to feel your lips again. I love you, Hermione. I have always loved you."

Hermione looked at him and made her decision and she was sure that she was going to be very happy with it. "Viktor... I love you too."

The smile on his face described just how he was feeling and she could feel his emotions radiate onto her from where he was. His arms soon wrapped around her waist and he pulled her closer to him to bring her into a tight bear-hug embrace. It slowly morphed into a much more love filled caring and she rested her head against his strong chiseled chest.

She really needed to thank Harry for this trip, if it hadn't been for him and his convincing skills, she wouldn't have found proper returned love again. She also had to thank the sea in a way... It had shown and given her so much. She had played at the beach, in the waves with Viktor, the ship had carried him to her... She looked up into his dark brown eyes and whispered another 'I love you' before kissing him again. She knew that she wasn't going to regret this decision.

_**A/N I hope you liked it. This is the last chapter!**_


	13. Epilogue

**_A/N since people asked for another chapter, i'll write one more. thanks for reading my story!_**

**One month later**

Hermione smiled as a small wave tickled her feet as she walked along the beach she was at with Viktor by her side. The sun beamed down on her now olive skin and she could feel the sunlight slowly warm her up as she saw small goosebumps appear. She had never liked her pale skin so she was glad she had stayed a month more at Crete, it was a beautiful place that had given her way more than expected.

After the cruise ship had been fixed, Hermione and Viktor had decided to stay on the island. They had wanted to get to know each other some more and the island as well. Harry had gone back to Britain and was currently expecting a child with Cho who had been apparently much more than happy to see him come back to her.

Viktor had his arm wrapped protectively around her waist and was whispering something along the lines of how beautiful she was into her ears. She giggled as he mentioned something about the lingerie she had worn the other night and slapped him playfully on the arm and told him to shut up. She could feel many of muggle eyes on them and blushed knowing just how lucky she was to have the heart of Viktor Krum, he was something that words just couldn't describe.

"Hello lovebirds!" Sasha said, suddenly appearing next to them hand in hand with Mariah.

Hermione eyes widened as she noticed a diamond ring on Mariah's slender and long finger and knew immediately that Sasha had asked her to marry him. She looked at Viktor and wondered when it was going to be her moment, their moment... They had only been together for a month now so she should keep those thoughts away. It was probably going to happen in a million years...

"Aleksander! Do you keep having to have to appear all of a sudden like that all the time?" Viktor asked him with a scowl on his face. "Give us a warning or something."

Mariah giggled. "That's what I love about him," she said, blushing furiously. "He's full of surprises- He's asked me to marry him!"

Viktor raised an eyebrow in shock. "Sasha is going to be committed to a relationship now?" he said, speaking to them both. "That's a surprise. You better treat Mariah well Aleksander, you're lucky to even have yourself in her heart. She's a very pretty lady with so many fine qualities."

Hermione frowned and turned away from Viktor, wanting some attention from him. She knew that he had said that to make sure that Sasha wouldn't hurt her but still felt a tad more than just jealous. She smiled as she felt his arms go around her waist and she could feel his chin rest on her shoulder. "But I'm the luckiest man in the world Hermione," he whispered into her ears. "I've got you."

The day after she had decided to be with Viktor, Ron had gone ballistic but hadn't done anything to hurt her as Viktor had a word or two with him. He had yelled something about how stupid she was being and that Viktor was going to cheat on her and everything and had even asked her to go out with him instead. That had ended up with Lavender dumping him. She was currently dating Seamus Finnigan and was said to be in a strong relationship, which was a surprise as she had cheated on all of her past boyfriends.

Ron was apparently still recovering from the injuries Viktor had given him and was keeping to himself a lot. Molly had started to avoid seeing or speaking to Hermione now but that didn't really matter to her. She had Viktor Krum and that was all that mattered. She had lost her friendship with Ronald but knew that someday he would get over her and apologise to her. He just needed a bit more time to grow up.

She turned around and looked back at Viktor and could feel her eyes warm up as she looked into his dark eyes. "I love you, Viktor Krum."

"What?" Viktor asked, pretending to have not heard her.

She giggled and kissed him on the lips, repeating the words 'I love you' as she did so.


End file.
